Kin search for missing in Bangladesh fire
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- In the day since a fire broke out in the oldest part of Bangladesh's capital, Awal Hossain has been searching for his younger brother.
Hossain stood outside Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Thursday evening along with others holding pictures of family members missing after the blaze. Others took relatives out of the morgue in coffins.
"The body of his acquaintance has been found, but I can't find him," Hossain said.
The fire raced through densely packed buildings in a centuries-old district of Dhaka, killing at least 67 people, officials and witnesses said Thursday.
About 50 people were injured, with some critically burned.
The old district is crammed with buildings separated by narrow alleys, with residences commonly above shops, restaurants or warehouses on the ground floors.
The blaze started late Wednesday in one building and quickly spread to others, fire department chief Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed said.
Fire officials initially said 81 bodies had been recovered, but later lowered the number to 67.
Armed men arrested in Haiti back in U.S.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The U.S. State Department said several men arrested in Haiti with a cache of weapons at a time of violent demonstrations have been returned to the United States before a scheduled court hearing in the Caribbean nation.
The department said in an emailed statement that the return was coordinated with Haitian authorities, but a spokesman for Prime Minister Jean-Henry Ceant told Radio Vision 2000 on Thursday that he was not aware of the men's departure and demanded an immediate explanation from the justice minister.
Five U.S. citizens were among eight men arrested Sunday while carrying automatic weapons and other arms and driving in cars without license plates. Police spokesman Michel-Ange Louis-Jeune has said the men told police they were on a "mission," but they refused to say anything else except that they would call their unidentified bosses.
Prosecutors had said the men would appear in court Wednesday. Instead, they were taken to the airport.
Carel Pedre, a Haitian media personality, said in a video posted on Facebook that he was on a commercial flight to Miami with the men and posted a video of them. He said that when the plane landed, the crew announced that officials would be boarding it before anyone could disembark. He said U.S. officials led the men away.
Chinese knife-wielder wounds 11 people
BEIJING -- A reportedly mentally ill man attacked morning commuters with a knife Thursday in southern China, wounding 11 people, including students, police reported.
The Ji'an city police agency wrote on its blog that the attacker was immediately tackled by police and onlookers. He was identified as Guo Kaibing, 33, whom his family said had a history of mental illness, police said.
None of the wounded suffered life-threatening injuries, they said.
The attack is the latest in a string of mass stabbings around the country blamed on people with mental illnesses or bearing grudges against individuals or society.
Firearms are tightly controlled in China, with private ownership illegal, while knives are mostly unregulated.
In December, an attacker with a knife who tried to hijack a bus killed five people and wounded 21, while in March, nine were killed in an attack outside a middle school that police said was carried out by a former pupil seeking revenge for having been bullied.
Leader says Pakistan ready to face India
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's prime minister on Thursday authorized the armed forces to "respond decisively and comprehensively to any aggression or misadventure" by neighboring India, as tensions soared between the nuclear-armed rivals.
India has vowed a "jaw-breaking response" to a suicide bombing in the disputed Kashmir region last week that killed 40 Indian soldiers. It was the worst attack on Indian forces since the start of the Kashmir insurgency in 1989.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the order in a government statement released after a meeting of his national security advisers. It said Pakistan was "not involved in any way, means or form" in the attack, which it said was "conceived, planned and executed indigenously."
In the statement, Pakistan reiterated its offer to help investigate the attack and to take action against anyone found to be using Pakistani soil for attacks on India.
India has long accused Pakistan of harboring and aiding Islamic militants who target its forces in Kashmir. The Himalayan territory is split between Pakistani and Indian zones of control, but both countries claim it in its entirety, and they have fought two wars over it. An insurgency broke out in Kashmir in 1989, demanding independence or union with Pakistan.
Pakistan denies supporting militants, and has blamed the violence in Kashmir on what it views as India's military occupation of the territory.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 02/22/2019